Hours:
- Fall/Winter Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 10:00am-5:00pm; Wednesday and Friday, 10:00am-9:00pm; Sunday, 12:00pm-5:00pm (Archives closed)
- Spring/Summer Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10:00am-5:00pm; Wednesday and Friday, 10:00am-9:00pm; Sunday, 12:00pm-5:00pm (Archives closed)
Location: 9 Bonaventure Avenue, St. John’s, NL, P.O. Box 1800, Station C, A1C 5P9
Contact: 709-757-8030; archives@therooms.ca
Access: First-time users of the Archives pay a one-time $11.30 fee (includes HST) to obtain a permanent Researcher Registration number
Website Address: https://www.therooms.ca/
The Rooms contains the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial archives, art gallery, and museum. The name of the facility and its architecture are a reference to the “fishing rooms” where families in fishing villages historically processed their catch.
The Rooms’ archival collections preserve the records of Newfoundland and Labrador government, its departments and subordinate agencies, as well as private individuals, corporations, and organizations considered to be of significance to the history of the province. A strength of The Rooms’ collections are records related to the Newfoundland fishery.
The Colonial Office fonds consists of 169 microfilm reels of records relating to Newfoundland created by the Colonial Office and its predecessor and successor agencies between 1696 and 1902.
The Rooms contains the personal papers of several soldiers who served in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War. The Rooms is also home to the personal papers of missionaries to Newfoundland and Labrador such as Congregationalist missionary Dr. Charles Carroll Carpenter (1856-1909), Anglican missionary Henry Gordon (1917-1925), and medical missionary Dr. Eliot Curwen (1893, 1894-).
Of particular importance to the study of the history of medicine are the International Grenfell Association fonds (188_-1985). This collection, comprised of 42 linear metres of textual records as well as other materials, documents the history of the association which was founded by British surgeon and medical missionary Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell to provide healthcare, education, and religious and social services to the coastal communities of northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Grenfell initially came to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1892 as part of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fisherman and founded hospitals, nursing stations, schools, and orphanages. To raise money for his activities, Grenfell published accounts of life in northern Newfoundland and Labrador and lectured in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Conflict with the mission led to Grenfell splitting and founding the International Grenfell Association in 1914. The records of the International Grenfell Association include correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, minutes, personnel records, maps, architectural and technical drawings, photographs, fundraising and promotional materials, and films and audio materials.
Other collections related to the history of medicine include: the Benevolent Irish Society fonds (1822-1979), St. John’s Dorcas Society fonds (1879-1975), The Cowan Mission fonds (1893-1984), South Coast Disaster Relief Committee fonds (1929-1931), St. John Ambulance Newfoundland and Labrador Council fonds (1910-present), and the Patriotic Association of the Women of Newfoundland (W.P.A.) fonds (1914-1921, 1939-1948).
Thousands of images from The Rooms’ archival collections have been digitized and are available online. The Rooms’ website also includes virtual exhibits on The Newfoundland Regiment and the Great War; the Titanic disaster; the International Grenfell Association; women in sport; and the Innu, Labrador’s First Nations People.